I know we've talked a lot about this dude on this board over the past couple years, obviously. But IMO it's still not enough to wash the stink off of what some of you did in blaming him for the season going off the rails last year because he was getting the ball too much. I won't go much more into that, I've said enough about how braindead every single one of those takes was, but what I did want to do is status where the kid now stands on the ALL-TIME Miami leaderboard.
Now, I will say the game is a lot different now than it was 20, 30 years ago. And we play more games overall now. The regular season used to only be 11 games, now it's 12. There are conference championship games now that didn't exist when the greats of yesteryear played here. So this isn't entirely apples to apples, as we know. However, when you grow up in South Florida, and you dream of playing football at the University of Miami, and then you work your *** off as an undersized kid, who isn't the highest of high blue chip prospects, and then you have a pretty serious injury early in your career, trust me, you don't give a **** about semantics. You just take pride in seeing your name among the MULTIPLE NFL Hall of Famers and college legends who have done it here for decades.
As always, X has been balling out all year, and is on pace for another amazing season. Even with all the mouths to feed, he still manages to produce week in and week out, even when he's slipping on a wet field and saving our season while being flat on his ***. Here is where he currently stands in the ALL-TIME Miami record book, and where he is on pace to end up:
All-Time Miami Receptions Leaders:
1. Mike Harley - 182
2. Reggie Wayne - 173
3. Stacy Coley - 166
4. Xavier Restrepo - 156
5. Lamar Thomas - 144
X is currently averaging 5 catches per game. At this current pace, assuming we play 9 more games (and this might be light...I'm thinking 7 more regular season, 1 ACCCG and 1 post-season game), he will end his career with 201 receptions, which makes him the #1 leader in the history of the school
All-Time Miami Receiving Yardage Leaders:
1. Santana Moss - 2,546
2. Reggie Wayne - 2,510
3. Michael Irvin - 2,423
4. Lamar Thomas - 2,271
5. Stacy Coley - 2,218
6. Leonard Hankerson - 2,160
7. Mike Harley - 2,158
8. Travis Benjamin - 2,146
9. Xavier Restrepo - 2,139
10. Phillip Dorsett - 2,132
Same math as above, let's assume he plays 9 more games this year. He's averaging 84.4 yards per game. Assuming he keeps this pace the rest of the season, add 760 yards to his total, which gives him 2,899. 350+ more yards than Santana Moss
Additionally, Michael Irvin leads the program all-time in touchdown catches, with 26. X currently has 5 TDs this year in 5 games. I don't think he's going to score 9 more, but he might. And if he does, it'd give him 24 for his career, good for 2nd most in program history.
All this to say, go celebrate this kid for the rest of this year. Between his attitude, leadership, unselfishness (just watch the dude block), and commitment to the program, as well as his consistent production, he truly needs to be thought of as one of the all-time Canes, and a kid we should recognize as such.
Not bad for a 3-star, 5'10 kid who was going to run to Madison with his best buddy TVD last year.
